Bomb release system



26, 1952 e. c. PEARCE BOMB RELEASE SYSTEM 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 17, 1945 IN V EN TOR. f

1952 G. c. PEARCE BOMB RELEASE SYSTEM Filed Jan. 17, 1945 .l: u a m 2 6 3 U 0 n-Ui I n 1 FIGS Aug. 26, 1952 G. c. PEARCE BOMB RELEASE SYSTEM 3 Sheets-Shet 3 Filed Jan. 1'7, 1945 FIG.6

IN7NTOR.

Patented Aug. 26, 1952 George C. Pearce, Dayton,'0hio, assignor to Gen- "era! Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corrr efien f el ar Application January 17, 1945 Serial No. 573,180

This invention relates to aeronautical apparatus and more particularly to means for releasing bombs or other articles at spaced intervals'from an airplane or any other place of support; I i

It hasbeen found for many military missions a great number of small bombs uniformly distributed over a particular area is more eifective than a few large b'ombs. I

It is therefore an objectof my invention to provide a simple, safe, reliablemeans for releasing bombs and other articles at spaced intervals which may be easily and safely loadedn It is another object of my invention to provide a rack for'holding a plurality of bombs or articles in a horizontal position and for releasing them at spaced intervals.

' It is another object of my invention to provide a rack ior holding a plurality of bombs or articles in a vertical position and for releasing them atspaced intervals.

It is another object of my invention to provide means for holding bombs or articles in a horizontal position one above another and toprovide 'a means for releasing the bombs or articles at spaced intervals.

It is another object-of rnyinvention to'prov'ide means for releasably' supporting a plurality of bombs or'articlesone above the other in such a way 'that the weight on the lowermost bomb or article will be 'far less than the total weight of the bombs or articles above; 1 a

It isstill another object of myinvention to provide' means for starting the releasing of a second set of bombs orarticles' at spaced intervals a definite time after the'release of a first set of bonibs or articles at spaced intervals.

Theseobjects are attained in one arrangement holding-the bombs-or articles in a horizontal position one above the other on individual retain- 'l ever is held by a manually or externally controlled latch member. The interval between the release of each of the bombs or articles is controlled by the length of the latch lever and the arrangement of the contact between the free end of the retaining lever and the projection on the latch lever. 7

HA follower lever normally retained in inoperative position by the bombs or articles in the rack A is released by the last bomb or article of a set or 2 'Claims. (Cl. 891.5)

Y the bombs.

2 group to initiate release of the lowermost retaining lever of the next set or group. In a second arrangement, the bombs are held in a vertical position and each of the bombs is held in place by a hook on the retaining lever which extends through an aperture in the ear oneach of The retaining lever for the first bomb is held in place by a manually controlled latch lever. The retaining lever for the re- 'mainder of the bombs in the set is retained in one end extending beneath and supporting the retaining lever. This bell-crank latch lever is normally held in this position by a tension spring extending to a vertical slide member having a pin resting on top of the preceding bomb or article. The bell crank latch lever extends into the path of movement of the slide member so that after the first bomb or article is manually released its slide member will strike the bell crank latch lever under the influence of the tension spring to release the support of the retaining lever to permit release of the second bomb. The third bomb is released by a similar arrangement with the second bomb and the remaining bombs likewise in succession.

Further objects and advantages of, the present invention willbe apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a'preferred form of i along the line 33 of Fig. 5 of another form of my invention;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line i l of Fig. 3; l

-Fig. 5 is. a sectional View taken substantially along the line- 5-5 of Fig. 3;

' Fig.6 is an end view of the structure shown in Fig. 3 showing a bomb partially out of the rack; and

Fig. 7 is a sectional View similar to Fig. 5 with the bomb shown partially out of therack.

While I have shown myirivention as applied to bomb racks, it should be understood that it is applicable wherever it is desired to release articles at spaced intervals into or onto any medium. Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Fig. 1, there is shown a bomb rack for holding bombs or articles in a horizontal position one above the other in two sets of four vertical channel member 22.

bombs or articles each. To this end there is provided a guideway extending between the vertical channel members 20- and 22. These channels are fastened together at the top by a transverse member 24. The uppermost bomb or article 26 is held by a retaining lever 28 which is sufficiently wide to properly support the bomb or article 26. This lever 28 is pivoted by the pin 36 to the channel member 20. The distance between the channel members 20 and 22 should be just slightly greater than the diameter or width of the bomb or article 26, While the distance between the retaining lever 28 and the transverse member 24 should be just equal to the diameter or height of the bomb or article 26. The retaining lever 28 preferably extends substantially the entire distance across the guideway from the pivot pin 30.

As is better shown in Fig. 2 it is preferable to provide a hardened plate 32 upon the bottom side of the retaining lever 28. This hardened plate 32 rests upon and slightly overlaps a projection 34 provided upon the upper edge of the latch lever 36' pivoted by the pivot pin 38 to the vertical channel member 22 substantially directly opposite the pivot pin 30. The lower edge of this latch lever 36 rests directly upon the bomb or article 40 immediately below. Preferably the projection 34 and the upper surface of the lever 36 adjacent the projection 34 is hardened or plated with chromium to prevent wear. If desired the hardened plate 32 and the projection 34 may be omitted and the retaining lever 28 maybe permitted to rest directly upon the straight upper surface of the .latch lever 36.

The bomb or article 40 rests directly upon a .retaining lever 42 similar to the retaining lever 23 which is pivoted by thepin 44 to the channel member 20. The free end of the retaining lever 42 rests upon the upper surface of the latch lever 46 which is pivoted by the pin 48 to the The latch lever 46 normally rests upon the bomb immediately below. The bomb 50 normally rests upon the retaining lever 52 pivoted by the pin 54 to the vertical channel member and the freeend of this retaining lever 52 is normally supported by the latch lever 56 pivoted' by the pin58 to the vertical channel member 22. The freeend of this latch lever normally rests upon the bomb or article 66 which in turn, is normally supported by the retaining lever 62 pivoted by the pin 64 to the vertical channel member 26. This retaining lever 62' is provided with a projecting plate 64 normally held in place by a bell crank latch lever 66 under the influence of the tension spring 68. This bell crank lever 66 is'connected to the armature 76 of a solenoid 12 which when energized by the closing of the'swit'ch 14 as shown, will pivot the bell crank lever 66 in a counterclockwise direction against the tension of the spring 68, so that the lowermost retaining lever 62 will be released as shown in Fig. 1.

-This permits the lowermost bomb or article to be released under the force of gravity as shown.

As shown the lowermost article or bomb 60 has fallen far enough to permit the latch lever 56 to fall almost to a vertical position which releases the retaining lever 52 as shown, since the projection 34 has moved out of the way of the hardened plate at the free end of the retaining lever 52. After this takes place the bomb or article 50 begins to fall immediately. The spacing between the bombs is controlled principally by the length of the lever 56. If the lever 55 is made shorter the intervals between the release of the bombs will be proportionately less. The lengths of the various levers may be made the same to obtain uniform spacing of the bombs or they may be made of different lengths to obtain a variable spacing of the bombs. The overlapof the hardened plate 32' over the edge of the projection 34 forms a snap acting arrangement with the preceding bomb 60 which permits the sharp release of the succeeding bomb immediately after the complete release of its latching lever by the preceding bomb with a consequent reduction in wear. If this is not important a plain latch lever without a projection-may be used, if desired. The falling of the second lowermost bomb or article 50 will permit the complete release of the latch lever 46 since the free end of the latch lever 46 then can clear the bomb 56. This freeing allows the retaining lever 42 to drop to release its bomb or article 40. Likewise when the bomb 40 falls far enough to permit the extreme end of thelatch lever 36 to clear, the retaining lever 28 will be released to allow the release of the uppermost bomb or article 28. Through this arrangement the bombs or articles are released at spaced intervals in close succession.

It should be noted, however, that although each bomb in a sense is supported by the bomb beneathit, the weight upon the lowermost bomb is far less than the sum of the weights of the bombs above. This is due to the use of the lever principle to reduce the force or weight transmitted from one to another. The; bomb or article 26, for example, rests substantially at the midpoint of the retaining lever 28 so that substantially half its weight is carried by the pivot pin 30, while the other half is carried. by the projection 34 and the latch lever 36. The projection 34, however, is placed about four-fifths of the distance between the point of contact of the latch lever 36 with the bomb or article 40 and the pivot pin 38 so that four-fifths of the force received from the hardened plate 32 at the end of the retaining lever 28 is applied to the pivot pin 38 and the remainder or one-fifth of this force is transferred to the bomb 40. Since the retaining lever 28 has already divided the weight of the bomb applied to the lever 36 by two, this one-fifth of the force upon the lever 36 amounts to only about one-tenth of the weight of the bomb or article 26.

The weight of the bomb 40 plus one-tenth of the weight of the bomb 26 is'applied to the retaimng lever 42, but by virtue of the 1 to 10 leverage or arrangement only one-tenth of this total is applied to the bomb 50 immediately below, which amounts to about 11% of the weight of one bomb. The weight of the bomb plus this 11% is applied to the retaining lever 52, but only one-tenth of this total approximately is applied to the lowermost bomb 60. This onetenth only amounts to about 12% of the weight of one bomb so that the total weight upon the lowest retaining lever is only about 113% of the weight of one bomb. Since the forces upon the levers and pivot pins vary less than 17% it is possible to make them of equal size and yet make them substantially as light as possible. Since the bombs are quite heavy'and the eliminat1on of any unnecessary weight is important, this feature is of particular advantage.

Space limitations often prevent the making of the guideway high enough to accommodate more than four bombs, one above the other. Since it isicustomaryto drop bombs inv a serieaofeight, there is provided a secondguidewayformed by the channels it and 19-at one sideof the-first g-uideway for carryin the second set: of four bombs or articlesfit); 92, 84;and'95-.-, To release ,98 acts-uponthe link-92 so-as to urge-the-lever 98 into, contact with. the bombs, and-to move the latch lever 94 tothe releasing position shown in dotted lines.- The bombs in th first section: of the rack, however, prevent this from taking place until they are free of the lever- 89 which allows the lever 89 to move to the dottedlinepofsiti on.

Above the-bomb fill-.isthelatch lever III which supports the retaining lever II3 upon which the bomb 82 rests. Resting upon the bomb B2 is the latch lever I I5 which supportsthe retaining lever I I1 while the latch lever I l9 rests upon the bomb 84. and supports the retaining lever- I2I, which supports the bomb or article 86.. These latch levers. and retaining levers are similar to the latch lever 36 and the. retaining lever 28, as shown in-Fig. 2. 7

Referring now tojthe remaining figures of the drawings, there isshown a bomb rack provided with a series of vertical guideways for support.- ing a series of bombs side by side ina vertical position. The bomb rack is formed of the longitudinal structural members I'3I, I33, I35v and I31 between which are supported the verticalchannel members I39, I41, I43 and similar channels uniformly distributed along the rack in as great a number as desired. These channel members divide the rack into vertical guideways which receive th bombs I45, I41 and I49 and succeeding bombs in the remaining uideways of. the rack. The bomb I45 is provided with a pierced ear I5I projecting from the side of the bomb through a slot I53 provided in the bottom portion of the vertical channel member I39. This car is engaged by a hook I55 provided on the bottom of a retaining lever I51 which is pivoted by the pin I59 to the channel member I39. Th bomb I41 is likewise provided with an ear lIiI which extends through the slot I63 in'the channel member I4I, andwhich is engaged by hook I65 on the bottom portion of the retaininglever I61which is pivoted to the channel member MI by the pin IE9. I v

-The retaining lever I51 is normally supported by the transverse pin I1I provided at the lower end of the latching lever I13 which is pivoted upon the pin I and normally biased in a clockwise direction by a tension coil spring I11. The pin I1I extends through an aperture in the channel member I39 and is supported on the opposite side by a link NH. The upper end of the lever I13 is bent laterally to form a hook I83 provided with two holes therein. The channel member I39 is provided with a bracket I85 connected by the pin I81 to a block I89 having two holes therein adapted to register with the two holes provided in the hook portion I83 of the lever I13. The first set of holes are adapted to receive ,a. cotterpin'- I 91 shown in dotted. lines in Fig-4, .whichservefi: as a safety device to prevent the accidental release of the latching lever I13 while the bomb rack is; being handled or pulled into-a plane. This cotterpin is normallyremoved lust'before the planetakesofi.

A-Bowden control wire l93 extends through the second set of holes and prevents therelease of the lever I13 after thecotterpin I9I has been removed. ThisBowden control wire I93'extends throughaBowden wire casing I95 to the pilot or bombardiers compartment where the end of the control wire I93 is provided with a suitable button I91 which can be pulled to pull the end of the'BoWden control wire I93 out of the block I89 and the hook I93 so as to release thelever I13. This permits thespring I11 to rotate the lever I13 vina clockwisedirection about the pivot Pin I15: to remove the supporting pin I1I'from beneath the end of the, retaining lever- I51 which allows it tofall to the position shown in Fig. 6 releasing the hook I from engagement with the earIE'I releasingthe bomb I45.

The retaining lever I61 for the next bomb I41 is supported bythe transverse pin 292 provided at the lower end of the bell crank latch lever 294 pivotedupon the pivot'pin 296. This pivot pin 296 extends through the channel member MI and on the opposite side is connected by the link 298 with the-pin 292.

To release the bomb I41 a definite interval aiter the release. of the bomb I45, I provide a slide bar 2 I9; enclosed in a slideway provided: by a channel-shaped member 2I2 fastened tothe side of' the channel member I4I. This channel member 212 is provided with a long slot '2I4 through which a. pin, 2I6 projects outwardly from the upper end of the slide bar 2 ID. This pin 2I6 normally rests ontop of't-he bomb I45 and is normally held in this position by a tension coil spring 2I8 hooked at its upper end to an arm 229 extending from the top of the slide bar 2!!! beneath the raised flange portion 222 of the channel member 212; The lower end of this tension coil spring 2I9 is hooked to a ring connected to. the bell crank lever 294 immediately adjacent the pivot pin 296. This connection tends to rotate the bell crank retaining latch lever 294 in a counterclockwise direction so as to normally hold the pin 292 beneath the retaining lever I61. The bell crank retaining, latch lever 294 beneath the slide bar 2 I9. is provided with an adjustable screw 2241'threaded through the bell crank retaining latch lever 29.4 and provided with a looknut 22 9 on itslower side.

. As soon as the latch lever I13 is released by a pullon the Bowden wire I93; the pin I1I will be removed from beneath the retaining lever I51 and the bomb I45 will be propelled downwardly under the force of the spring 2I8 as well as the force of gravity; Before the pin 2 I9 reaches the lower end" of the slot 2 I4 the lower end of the slide bar 219 will strike the top of the set-screw 2 24 and cause it to pivot in a. clockwise direction under the force applied by the upper end of the spring 218, so as to remove the pin 292 from beneath the retaining lever I51 so as to permit the release of the hook I from the ear I9I to release the bomb I41.

In Fig. 6' the bomb I45 is shown released while in Fig. 7 bomb I41 is shown released. Peculiarly enough the lower end of the spring 2I8 tends to pull the bell crank retaining latch lever 294 in a counterclockwise direction while the upper end of the spring 2 I8 pulls the slide bar 2I9 into engagement with the bell crank lever toforce it'to turn in the opposite direction. This isaccom plished by reason of the fact that the slide bar 2Ill engages the set-screw 224 near the end of the bell crank lever so that it hasa mechanical advantage of four or five to one over the lower end of the lever which is ample toca use this action. The spacing between thebombs may be varied by changing the length of the slide bar 2 It). The distances between the top of the set-screw and the bottom of the slide bar determines thespacing of the bombs. The set-screw 224 may be adjusted to vary this spacing within its limits of adjustment.

Fastened to the channel member M3 is a'similarmechanism for causing the release of the next bomb I49 a similar interval after the release of the bomb I lI. Similar-separate mechanisms are provided between each of the remaining bombs within the rack so that all the bombs are released in succession at spaced intervals. When used for parachute bombs, the pin 2I6 may be provided with a clip 230 to which may be attached a wire 232 which maybe connected 'to a means foropem'ng the compartment in the top of the bomb containing the parachute.

In loading the rack, the first bomb IE5, to be released is first loaded by pushing it upwardly in the guideway between the channel members I39 and MI. The upper end of the bomb first contacts the pin 2 I6 and moves this pin 2 I I} together with the slide bar 2I0 upwardly until it reaches the upper end of the slot 2M, This te'nsionsthe spring 2I8. The ear II on the bomb I45 contacts the retaining lever I51 and raises it to the horizontal position so that the hook I55 enters the aperture in the ear I5I. The latching lever I13 is then moved to the vertical position in which the supporting pin I'II is moved beneath the free end of the retaining lever I51 and the Bowden control wire I93 is inserted through the registering apertures in the block I89 and the hook I83 at the upper end of the latching lever I13.

The succeeding bombs I47, I49, etc., may be loaded in succession merely by forcing them upwardly into position. In so doing each bomb engages the projecting pin to stretch the long vertical tension spring which connects to the latch mechanism ofthe succeeding bomb. For example, the bomb I4! will contact the projecting pin 234 to stretch the spring 236 which connects to the latchmechanism for the bomb I49. The ear-I6I will contact and lift the retaining leve'r I67 causing the hook I65 to project through the aperture in the ear I6I. Since the spring'ZIB has been tensioned by the previous insertion of the bomb I45, the bell crank latch lever 204 will be-in the latching position shown in Fig 5. To permit the latching to take place, the retaining lever I61 as well as the other retaining levers are provided at their free ends with an inclined cam surface I68 for engaging and camming in a clockwise direction the supporting pin 202 at the lower end of the bell crank latch lever 204 against the opposing force of the spring 2I8. At the completion of the camming operation the bell crank latch lever 204 snaps back to the latching position shown in Fig. 5. Where it is possible to remove this entire rack, it may be conveniently loaded by performing the loading operations with the rack in the inverted position.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other form might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A mechanism for releasing articles at spaced intervals which comprises releasable retaining means for the first article to be released, a slide meanshaving means contacting'the first article to be released, a second releasable retaining means for retaining the second article to be released, latch means normally preventing the release oi the second retaining means, said latch means being provided with an adjustable releasing projection extending into the path of movement of a portion of the slide means, and spring means for holding the contacting means of the slide means in contact with and for following the movement of the first article to be released whereby the slide member upon engaging the projection causes the latch means to release the second retaining means and the second article, said releasing projection being adjustable in the direction of movement of said portion of the slide means to vary the interval between the releases of the first and second articles.

2. A mechanism for releasing articles at spaced intervals which comprises releasable retaining means for the first article to be released, a slide means having means contacting the first article to be released, a second releasable retaining means for retaining the second article to be released, a pivoted latch means normally in engagement with the second retaining means, said pivoted latch 'means having a portion extending into the path of movement of a portion of the slide means so that the slide means upon engagement therewith can pivot the latch means to release the second retaining means, and spring means extending between the slide means and the latch means and having a greater mechanical advantage at one end for forcing the slide means to pivot the latch means and a lesser advantage at the other end for normally preventing the release of the second retaining means.

GEORGE C. PEARCE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

, UNITED STATES PATENTS 

